As the first nonfamily chairman and chief executive of Ford Motor Co., Philip Caldwell led a turnaround in the early 1980s that put the ailing car company on the road to sleeker styling and record profits.

Mr. Caldwell, who died Wednesday at age 93 at his home in Connecticut, became CEO of Ford in 1979 after a quarter century climbing its corporate ladder. The post had been the last hereditary throne in U.S. big business, formerly...